


Scrabble

by CandiceWright



Series: Board games and other shenanigans [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Board Games, Comedy, Established Relationship, Fluff, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Making Up, Merlin is a Little Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23231467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CandiceWright/pseuds/CandiceWright
Summary: The one in which Merlin and Arthur are way too competitive, Merlin loves making up words and pissing Arthur off and a simple round of Scrabble turns into an elaborate prank involving all their friends.All for wanting a quiet night in.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Board games and other shenanigans [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670287
Comments: 45
Kudos: 322





	Scrabble

**Author's Note:**

> So this took longer than expected. Well, the good news is that there'll be a part 2 to this series in the next few days.
> 
> Enjoy this fluffy self-indulgent story!

Merlin and Arthur's lives were hectic. Merlin barely had time to do anything while finishing his studies and Arthur’s job as the CEO of his father’s company barely gave him a moment to breathe, let alone do something recreational. The little free time they had they usually spent with their friends at the pub in a desperate attempt at maintaining the minimum amount of social interaction possible.

Besides those nights of hanging out and drinking, the only type of downtime they had was at their apartment.

They had moved in together soon after Arthur got his degree, while Merlin was in his third year. They had decided to go for a cozy small place in a convenient location instead of anything bigger or more high-maintenance. They had both agreed that it was the best option at the time and that they could think about the future later in life, for their relationship wasn’t ending anytime soon. Everyone that met them knew they were meant for each other and that despite their banter the love they held for one another was immeasurable.

The thing was that the little time they spent together in the apartment was usually reserved for more...intimate activities. 

Either that or to just escape to their own little world for a few blissful hours.

Nights like these were rare, where Arthur wasn’t sorting out paperwork for the next day and Merlin didn’t have his head buried in a book that he’d read about a thousand times already but was _an irreplaceable classic that was worth rereading, Arthur._

Today they were curled up on the couch against each other, with nothing to do but to enjoy the evening in.

Oh, and they were supposed to be watching a movie.

The problem was that the movie had long lost their interest. It had been Arthur's idea, of course, to watch an action-packed film with barely any plot in it and so many inconsistencies that Merlin could barely take it anymore. Arthur wasn’t impressed either, it wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting.

Normally, they would have dozed off by now, too exhausted to do anything else. That would have been the ideal situation in this case, but it had been a weird day that had put them in an equally as weird mood.

So now they lied restless and mildly annoyed by cinematic disappointments.

Neither of them could bear it anymore, so Arthur reached for the TV remote and turned it off for good.

“We should do something else.”

“It’s a bit late to go out at this point,” Merlin said, still staring at the black screen as if he was in a trance.

Arthur cuffed him in the head.

“I didn’t mean that, you idiot.” Merlin mouthed ‘Ow’ and rubbed the back of his head. Arthur just rolled his eyes. “I meant doing something else here.”

“Like what?” 

“Maybe we could play a board game,” Arthur said. Merlin raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sure? It didn’t go too well last time,” he pointed out.

“True,” Arthur admitted. “But that’s because Monopoly was a game created purely to end relationships. It’s evil.” Merlin snorted.

“Alright, no Monopoly. What do you suggest then?”

Arthur thought about it for a moment.

“What about-”

“If you say Risk, Arthur, I swear to God-”

“Alright, alright!” Arthur raised his hands in defeat. “No Risk.”

“Or Monopoly.”

Arthur rolled his eyes, “Yes, Merlin. Or Monopoly.”

“What else do we have?”

“I don’t know,” Arthur responded. “I think we have chess-”

“Nope, my brain isn’t capable of that right now,” Merlin said.

“Is it ever?”

Merlin rolled his eyes.

“Prat.”

“Idiot.”

“Okay, what else?”

“We have Scrabble,” Arthur remembered.

“That...actually sounds fun.”

“Yeah, it does. Should I bring it out?” 

Merlin nodded, “I don’t see why not.”

Arthur stood up and got the game box from the bedroom. After a few minutes of setting it up, they were ready to play.

At first, everything was going great.

It was Arthur who went first, placing a simple 'The' in the center of the board. Merlin followed up by making 'to' out of his letter T.

It seemed that it was going to be a nice relaxed evening playing a nice round of Scrabble.

But, of course, it wasn't that simple.

Because playing games in the Pendragon-Emrys household appeared way easier than it actually was. 

In reality, they were both way too competitive to actually enjoy the games, always trying to best each other only to fuel this petty rivalry between them. This ongoing war had caused a ban on certain things like a few board games or virtually any multiplayer videogame (especially Mario Kart or Mario Party, those always ended in bloodshed). 

Now, as they had the board spread before them, the battle had once again begun.

For they were ten minutes in and Arthur was inexplicably winning, according to Merlin at least.

It was time for desperate measures.

Merlin grabbed some letters and added on to one of Arthur’s previous words.

The word 'pole' to be exact. 

Arthur stared at the result for a beat before looking up.

“...What the hell is a ‘clotpole’? You know you can’t make up words, right?”

“It’s not made up!” Merlin exclaimed, looking genuinely offended.

“Right,” Arthur said, obviously not believing him. “Define it then.”

“It’s...Someone who’s annoying and dumb most of the time. Like a prat, but more,” Merlin said to an unconvinced Arthur, whose eyebrows were about to reach his hairline. “You don’t believe me.”

“I really don’t.”

“Right, then,” Merlin said, putting on his best ‘I’m extremely mad at you and we’re not having sex tonight’ performance. “Don’t believe me.”

“Merlin! Don’t be like that.”

Merlin stood up from the couch.

“Fine, but don’t bother coming to the room tonight.”

He could still hear Arthur calling out “Merlin! Merlin, come one!” when he laid down on his bed.

Right then, Merlin was presented with a choice. He could go out and tell Arthur that he _had_ indeed invented that word and therefore admit his defeat.

Or he could take the opportunity to have some fun.

He pulled out his phone and wrote a simple text to his friends.

_Guys, I need your help._

***

“I’m telling you I don’t know what I did, Morgana!” Arthur complained to his sister, who sat opposite to him in the coffee shop table.

“Well, you must have done something for Merlin to get mad at you.”

“I told him his word on scrabble was invented and i didn’t believe him when he said it wasn’t,” Arthur admitted.

“Did you apologize?” Morgana asked, her eyebrow raised.

“There was nothing to apologize for!”

Morgana scoffed, “Arthur, you can be such a clotpole sometimes. If he was so clearly upset, you should have-”

“Wait, a what?”

Morgana looked at him, confused. “What?”

“What did you call me?” She thought about it for a moment. 

“A clotpole?”

Arthur threw his hands in the air and said, “What the hell is that?!?”

“An idiot? an arrogant arse?” she explained, but Arthur looked as lost as he felt. “Are you seriously telling me you’ve never heard that before?”

“Yes!” Morgana’s incredulous stare at that was the last straw. “You know what? I need a break. I’m going to hang out with the guys.”

He stood up, leaving his half-full coffee on the table and left.

When he was finally out of sight, Morgana couldn’t contain her laugh anymore.

***

“Where’s Merlin?” Gwen asked as she sat down next to Lance.

Going to the pub on Friday afternoons had been a tradition since they were all in college. At first, it had just been Leon and Arthur, but soon they had met Lance and Percival while playing footie and shortly after they had joined them. Meeting Gwaine had been inevitable since he was always in the pub regardless, but he had fit in like a puzzle piece. 

Then Arthur met Merlin and they became _ArthurandMerlin,_ so he started coming to the pub nights too.

It was through Merlin that they met Gwen, Merlin's best friend, and Elyan, Gwen's brother. Morgana joined them sometimes too, for she had quickly adopted Merlin and Gwen.

Today, both Morgana and Merlin weren't there, though Morgana's absence was only due to her busy schedule.

Merlin's was because…well.

“He’s mad at me,” Arthur said.

“Why? what did you do?” Gwen asked.

“Why does everyone think I must have done something?”

“Because you usually do,” Gwaine said. Percival nodded in agreement.

“True.”

“Last time you broke his uncle’s vase,” Lancelot pointed out.

Gwen said, “And you almost burnt the apartment down once.”

“I told him I can’t cook!”

“You were making pasta, mate,” Leon, his oldest friend, said.

“Whose side are you on?” he said, but before Leon could answer he threw his arms up in defeat. “You know what? Don’t answer that.”

He buried his face in his hands and he’d intended to stay like that, but Gwen’s hand on his shoulder made him look up.

“What happened this time, Arthur?” she asked.

“We played Scrabble.”

Everyone groaned in unison.

“I don’t know why you keep thinking that playing games is a good idea,” Elyan said.

Arthur couldn’t help but agree, “Me neither.” Gwen nodded.

“You can both be such big clotpoles,” she said.

“True, ” Lance agreed.

“Yeah,” Percival said.

But Arthur was too caught up in that _damned word._

“Wait, you too? Am i the only one who’s never heard that word before?”

Everyone looked at him, confused.

“What word?” Gwen asked.

“Clotpole.”

“Yeah, mate,” Gwaine said.

“I use it quite a lot,” declared Elyan.

“Same,” said Percival.

Everyone else just nodded and made sounds of agreement.

“You’re all in on this.”

“In what?” Gwen asked, perplexed.

The guys all looked as confused as her, but it was Gwaine that said, “Yeah, man. What are you talking about?”

Arthur’s head was about to explode.

“I can’t do this! I’m leaving.”

He stood up, gathered his things and left the pub and his friends behind.

As soon as Arthur had gone around the corner, everyone burst into laughter.

***

Arthur had since accepted his fate and decided to do the only thing he could: apologize to Merlin.

He walked into the apartment only to find it empty. He would have thought Merlin wasn’t there in it hadn't been for the cup of coffee on the table that hadn’t been there when he’d left. It was in that mug in the shape of a dragon that Merlin liked so much. Arthur always said that it was very childish but he secretly found it endearing.

He looked at the cup and made up his mind.

Approaching the bedroom door, he ran through the apology he'd rehearsed on his way home in his mind because lord knew he wasn’t good with words.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Love?” No response. “Merlin?” Still nothing. Well, desperate times called for desperate measures. “Open the door. Please.”

It was the please that did it. Merlin unlocked the door and faced Arthur, pouting and crossing his arms over his chest.

“What?” he said, his tone harsh.

“Look, I’m sorry for not believing you. Forgive me?” he put on his best puppy face, the one that he knew was Merlin’s weak spot. 

It worked because Merlin's icy expression melted and his arms dropped to his sides.

“Alright, you idiot. Come here,” he said grabbing Arthur's shirt to pull him flush against his body. “You’re lucky I can’t stay mad at you,” he said and launched to kiss him, closing the door behind the both of them.

After all, Arthur had some _thorough_ apologizing to do.

***

A few weeks after the incident, when it had almost been forgotten, they decided to have a movie night at Morgana's house.

They were sitting in the living room, some in the couch and others in chairs, gathered around a table full of snacks and drinks.

Merlin was coming back from the bathroom when he stopped and looked for an empty spot to seat down. Arthur tried to shift his body to the right to make some room from him, but Merlin still made no move to sit down, unconvinced about being able to fit?

It was then that Arthur said, “Merlin, stop being a clotpole and come here.”

Everyone went silent and looked at each other.

“What?” Arthur said.

And then they burst out in laughter.

Arthur was dumbfounded at the scene, not understanding what was causing his friends to roll around crying in amusement.

But then it clicked.

His face of confusion turned into one of understanding and then irritation.

“I hate all of you.”

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and ❤


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